Cisco Anyconnect: VPN Establishment capability from a Remote Desktop is disabled - wordaround

Symptom

When you try to connect to a VPN using Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client from a machine you’re connected to with Remote Desktop, you get an error message saying VPN Establishment capability from a Remote Desktop is disabled. A VPN Connection will not be established.

Solution

A workaround would be to use an alternative connection program (like TeamViewer) while establishing the tunnel.

Once the VPN is established, you can connect again with Remote Desktop.

In a nutshell, the steps are the following:

1. Install TeamViewer Full version in Service Mode
2. Reboot the computer or manually start the Service
3. Start TeamViewer, note the ID and Password
4. Install TeamViewer Full or Portable on your local machine
5. Disconnect the RDP Session and Connect via TeamViewer (or vice versa, doesn’t matter)
6. Connect to AnyConnect
7. Disconnect with Teamviewer. Connect back with Remote Desktop.

Detailed Steps

1. Your’re connected to the machine with Remote Desktop. Now you need to download and install TeamViewer Full Version. The program is free for home use only so use accordingly. Unfortunately, installation is obligatory, TeamViewer QS won’t work once the RDP session is disconnected.

A direct link to TeamViewer: http://www.teamviewer.com/download/TeamViewer_Setup.exe Alternately, you can visit TeamViewer’s website and go to the Download page.

Install TeamViewer following the wizard. It’s basically a next-next-next procedure, but you do need to install it as a service (choose Yes at the 4th step).

Once installed, start TeamViewer and follow the configuration wizard. You have to set a password but you don’t need to create a TeamViewer account.

1. Once you finish the wizard, you should see the TeamViewer icon at the System Tray. If there’s no icon there, you might have misconfigured something.

Due to a bug in TeamViewer, you need to restart the computer (A). You can also try manually starting the service (B). If you still can’t connect with TeamViewer, you still need to reboot the computer.

1. A. To reboot the computer, click on the empty start menu bar to bring it to focus.

Now hit Alt + F4 and choose Restart.

---

_{Originally posted to: http://www.thesysadminhimself.com/2011/04/cisco-anyconnect-kaspersky-vpn-client.html}